


//^ 



STATEMENT 



OF 



FACTS AND CIRCUMSTANCES 



CONNECTED WITH THE 



REMOVAL OF THE AUTHOR 



PROM THE 



PRESIDENCY OF KENYON COLLEGE. 



BY 



D. B. DOUGLASS, L. L. D. 



PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 



1844* 



hj 






STATEMENT, &c 



The friends and patrons of Kenj^on College, and others of the literary 
public to whom the last Annual Catalogue of that Institution has been 
communicated, will have noticed on a fly leaf inserted at the beginning, 
the following announcement ; viz. : 

" A vacancy having occurred in the Presidency of the College, since 
this Catalogue was printed, the name of D. B. Douglass is to be erased 
where it appears. The Rev. Samuel Fuller, D.D. is now the acting 
President, until a permanent election can be made," &c. 

The cautious language in which the leading fact of this announcement 
is conveyed, leaves the mind of the reader in doubt, whether the vacancy 
had been caused by the resignation, or dismissal of the late president. 
The first actual impression seems to have been that he had resigned ; 
and it was accordingly so stated in some of the church periodicals at 
the time ; but as there could be no reason why that fact should not 
have been stated in the usual way, if it were a fact — the reservation of 
it, when it came to be noticed, gave ground for suspicion, particularly 
among those who had any knowledge of the previous working of the 
system at Gambler, that something of painful interest must again have 
occurred at that seat of the Episcopate of Ohio. To many it was known 
that President D had but recently removed to Gambier, in the in- 
terest, and at the earnest solicitation of his old and confidential friend 
Bishop Mcllvaine ; that he had changed his plans of life, and abandoned 
his professional pursuits at the east, with considerable sacrifice, for the 
express purpose of " consecrating himself to the service of Kenyon 
College for life ;" and it had been heard in various ways, that since his 
connexion with the Institution, he had devoted himself unceasingly to 
the promotion of its best interests. To all such, the announcement 
of a vacancy, whether occasioned by resignation or removal, was, in the 
absence of explanation, equally mysterious. 

All these different forms and degrees of interest have been abundantly 
exemplified in the inquiries which have been addressed to the present 
writer since the publication of the catalogue ; nor have they materially 
abated even now. The uncertainty as to the particular manner in 
which the vacancy occurred, has indeed been removed, by the explicit 
disavowal on the part of President D. himself, of any participation in 



4 STATEMENT, &C. 

the responsibilitj' of that matter. It is now understood to have been 
■wholly the work of the Board of Trustees ; but on what ground it pro- 
ceeded, — how it was brought about, — who was the mover, — and why it 
-was that Bishop McUvaine, the president of the board, did not protect 
the friend who, in reliance upon his assurances had placed himself in a 
situation of so much responsibility, remains to this hour unexplained. 

It would be vain to expect any very just sentiment as to the merits 
of the case, when there is so entire a deficiency of correct information 
as to the facts. Almost the only fact certainly known, is, that President 
Douglass was removed from an office generally considered permanent ; 
and the natural inference from it is, that such removal must have been 
intended as a punishment, and punishment generally implies crime. 
" No doubt this man is a murderer," said the barbarous Islanders of Me,- 
lita, of St. Paul — " who though he has escaped the sea, yet vengeance 
suffereth not to live." 

The obligation of the writer to supply this deficiency of information, 
and to justify his own position in the eye of the community, by a full 
and explicit statement of the whole affair would seem under these cir- 
cumstances hardly to admit of a doubt ; and yet it has not been con- 
templated by him, but with extreme solicitude and reluctance. Con- 
stitutionally a lover of quietness and peace ; most unwilling at all times 
to obtrude himself, or his interests, upon the attention of the public ; and 
more than all, realizing the peculiar obligation of Churchmen in these 
times of agitation and party strife, to abstain from whatever would unne- 
cessarily add, either new occasion or new bitterness to the topics already 
existing ; he has only presumed to overlook these considerations, when 
he became fully convinced that it would be a compromise of higher and 
more imperative obligations to yield to them. Greatly as he deprecates 
all contention and party excitement, he feels that no apprehension even 
of these evils should restrain him in the present instance, from the ex- 
posure of essential wrong, mildly and charitably indeed, but at the same 
time faithfully and fearlessly ; and then if irritation or strife be the con- 
sequence, the accountability is with them who have given the occasion, 
not with him who is but the innocent and involuntary subject of it. 

Another and an important consideration which has influenced him in 
the publication of this statement, is to be found in the remoteness and 
isolation of the Institution and community at Gambier ; and their conse- 
quent exemption from the ordinary influences of public opinion. In the 
vicinity of large, populous, and mixed communities, public opinion ope- 
rates by a silent and secret influence as a restraint upon wrong doing 
before the fact, and upon misrepresentation, after. Under such circum- 
stances, flagrant violations of personal right, if not entirely prevented, 
are, when they occur, so thoroughly exposed, and so summarily redress- 
ed, as to render an open and direct appeal to public sentim.ent, seldom 
necessary. But the case is far otherwise in situations remote and se- 
cluded, like that of Gambier. There, public opinion has no such conser- 
vative influence. The independent public are too far off, and too little 
informed, and the local, too little independent ; abuses of the kind men- 
tioned may be perpetrated therefore, with comparative impunity ; and 



STATEMENT, &C. 5 

when perpetrated (' haud indoctus loquor,') the injured party has no 
disinterested community at hand, upon whose sense of right and justice 
he may fall back, and feel himself sustained. His only hope of redress, 
is in an appeal by facts, like that now contemplated, to a public else- 
where ; and even then he needs to be " thrice armed" in the truth and 
rectitude of his cause, if he would maintain it successfully against the 
arts of a disciplined and systematic detraction. 

The history of the Institution for a few years past, did it come within 
the scope of the present design, would amply illustrate the force and signi- 
ficancy of these remarks. For the present, a brief reference will suffice. 
In the lapse of about six years now just passed, there have been no less 
than ten professors, and other high officers of the Institution, arbitrarily 
removed from office ; — more, it is believed, than have been so removed 
from all the colleges of New England together, in half a century ; of 
which removals, it is not too much to say, not one could have taken 
place, as it actually did take place, had the Institution been under the 
proper restraining influence of an enlightened and independent public 
opinion. Some of these cases were indeed, covered by the formality 
of a resignation ; but without any claim on that account to be consider- 
ed as exceptions to the remark here made. Two of them were affected 
by a process too instructive in the present connection, to pass without 
a special notice. Kenyon College, an organized part of the institution 
since 1826, and specifically endowed by public donations at various 
times since, was, for the occasion, exliiiguished, — put out of existence, 
and instantly revived again, by an entry on the minutes of the Board 
of Trustees. No student was in any way affected by this proceeding, 
or probably aware of it ; the system went on as usual, without any 
visible interruption ; nor was there in fact any external evidence of 
change, except only, that tivo Professorships which were filled before 
the process, were found vacant after it* 

Surely no one can hesitate in the opinion, that where such facts as 
these have transpired, and such artifices been used to disguise and mys- 
tify them, without exciting strong public reprobation, there must either 
have been great deficiency of moral acuteness to discern what is right, 
or of independence to act and speak out under the impulse of that dis- 
cernment. 

The last of the removals to which reference has been made, was 
that of the present writer from the Presidency of Kenyon College, of 
which we come now more particularly to speak. 

* It has been argued in reference to this transaction, that as Kenyon College waa 
not separately incorporated by law, it had no real corporate existence, and could be 
altered or extinguished at the pleasure of the Board of Trustees. The reasoning is 
believed to be unsound ; but whether it be so or not does hot signify, in the present 
. case. The question is not, — what are the constitutional powers of the Board of 
Trustees in the abstract, but whether they could rightfully use those powers as they 
did, in the premises. If Kenyon College i.vas a real corporate entity, either by the 
terms of its endowment or otherwise, the Board of Trustees had clearly no power 
over its existence, and the whole proceeding was illegal. If it ivas not, then the 
ejected Professors were not officers of it, (but of the Theological Seminary,) and 
could not be affected in any way by its extinction. 



'6 STATEMENT, &C. 

The manner in which this fact was announced — by a fly leaf pre- 
fixed to the Catalogue as above stated, must have given to the minds 
of the readers of that publication, some intimation that the proceeding 
was one of haste and suddenness ; and this will be the more manifest 
when it is known that all the original part of the catalogue was drawn 
wp, — the matter arranged, — and the whole publication to the very last 
line, superintended, — by the President himself. With this fact in view, 
the pages of the publication bear evidence that there could have 
been no uncertainty or apprehension in the mind of the present writer, 
either as to the Institution or himself, at the date of its publication ; 
and such was the fact. At no time since he had exercised the Presi- 
dential office, had his mind been so entirely at ease on all subjects for 
which he was in any way responsible. The general condition of the 
College — the moral tone and deportment of the students — the zeal of 
ingenuous scholarship — the absence of all those evil influences which 
could give uneasiness to the mind of the most fastidious parent, — were 
most conspicuous. The delinquencies of a whole term were scarcely 
more numerous, ceteris paribus, than those of a single week in times 
past ; while of grosser offences, there were none whatever ; not even 
a private admonition had been called for in the way of discipline, for 
nearly two months. In all these respects, the great ends which had 
been placed before the writer in the tender of the office, and regarded 
by him in its acceptance, and which, with the unanimous approbation, 
as he supposed, of all parties, he had since steadily kept in view, 
seemed now to be fully and satisfactorily realized. 

Not only was he free from any, even the slightest apprehension of 
censure, but the whole current of his anticipations and feelings were 
the precise opposite of such an apprehension. He may be allowed to 
say, that never in the course of his public life, had he felt more con- 
fident of having deserved the approval of his constituency, by the 
faithful and effectual discharge of his duty, than on the occasion now 
referred to. 

Nor was there any thing in the communications or conduct of those 
around him, or to whom he stood in any relation of duty, that was not 
equally calculated to lull the fear of evil from others. In the Faculty 
of the College, every thing had been for a very long time, without an 
exception, harmonious and happy. From the Board of Trustees, he 
had experienced nothing but marks of approbation and confidence. 
With Bishop Mcllvaine, the president of the Board, his relations had 
indeed been, sometimes, strangely and mysteriously clouded, but never 
for two years past, apparently less so than at present. More than 
ordinary pains had been taken by the writer during the preceding 
season, to remove and guard against all ground of misunderstanding in 
that quarter ; and especially after the Bishop's second visit to New- 
York, the intercourse between them had been marked by unusual 
courtesy on his part, so as in a great measure, to remove any appre- 
hension on that account. Finally, the social relations of " the Hill," 
not always free from the leaven of uncharitableness, had never ap- 
peared more so since the writer's acquaintance with it, than at this time. 



STATEMENT, &C. 7 

Such was the state of things, and such the tone of the writer's feel- 
ings at the epoch of the publication of the Catalogue on the 28th of Fe- 
bruary. The Board of Trustees were in session, having been called, 
as the writer was given to understand, for the purpose of hearing the 
Bishop's statement of his doings in New- York, and taking further order 
for the extinguishment of the debt.* The Catalogue was ready for dis- 
tribution towards evening, and copies were immediately placed by the 
author on the table of the Board, in Bishop Mcllvaine's study. An 
informal business interview, of about an hour, ensued, after which 
tendering to the whole Board an invitation to dinner on the following 
day, the President withdrew. The whole conversation was most 
amicable and friendly, without the slightest intimation that the charac- 
ter or conduct of any one was called, or likely to be called, in question. 

It was not till near nine in the evening that any hint of the real senti- 
ments and intentions of the Board was communicated to the writer, and 
then not by themselves. Professor Ross, about that time, called into 
the President's study, and asked him, with some earnestness, " whether 
he knew what the Board were doing .'"' Being answered in the nega- 
tive, except as to the facts above stated, he proceeded to inquire whe- 
ther the writer had not been waited upon, during the day, by a commit- 
tee, and if so, what had passed } To which it was answered that a com- 
mittee had called in the morning and conversed, for a few moments, on 
the statistics of the diflferent Institutions, and the probable causes of the 
diminution of number in some of them ; but the conversation was wholly 
impersonal, and in no respect such as to excite any particular atten- 
tion, or even a second thought. " Let me tell you, then," said he, 
*' that all their conversation to others was about yourself, and that they 
are probably now discussing, if they have not already decided upon your 
dismissal from office.'''' 

The effect of this sudden and alarming intelligence upon the writer, can 
better be imagined than described. It was sometime before he could fully 
apprehend the urgency of the case ; and not till the fact had been reite- 
rated by the Professor, with a friendly admonition to go immediately 
and see to it, which he accordingly did. Arriving at the Bishop's, he 

* The Board of Trustees, under the ex-officio Presidency of the Bishop, were the 
Rev. E. Burr, of Portsmouth; Rev. E. Allen, of Dayton ; Rev. W. A. Smallwood, 
of Zanesville ; Rev. R. Bury, Cleveland ; Rev. G. Denison, Newark ; Rev. S. A. 
Bronson, Granville ; and Messrs. W. K. Bond, Cincinnati ; E. H. Cummings, Spring- 
field ; A. P. Pritchard, Granville ; C. Delano, and T. W. Rogers, Mount Vernon ; 
and J. L. Reynolds, Massillon ; the last three new members. Most of these gentle- 
men, residing at a distance from the Institution, and visiting it seldom, and then in 
a hurried way, knew very little of its interior concerns. The previous policy had 
been to keep them at a distance. "The less we see of them,-the better," was the 
reply, when the writer, in 1842, complained of there having been no meeting at Gam- 
bier during the first eighteen months of his presidency. Only two such meetings had 
transpired in the three years anterior to the present one ; both almost wholly engrossed 
with the fiscalities of the Institution, in which the writer was understood to have no 
part. They always met in conclave, in the Bishop's study, apparently taking no in- 
terest in the affairs of Kenyon College, except that a committee on buildings gene- 
rally came down and walked round the edifice. Nor was there indeed, anything in 
the past experience of the writer, to indicate that he or the College had any concern 
in their present deliberations. * " 



8 STATEMENT, &C. 

found the Board still in session ; and having obtained a private inter- 
view with the Committee that had waited upon him, — Messrs. Bond 
and Small wood, — he stated to them what he had heard, andrequest- 
ed £n explanation. Col. Bond stated in reply, that on a verbal com- 
munication made to them, in the morning, by Bishop Mcllvaine, 
relative to an alleged diminution of numbers in the Institution, a com- 
mittee of six had been appointed to make inquiries ; that they had ac- 
cordingly visited a number of persons on the hill, (whether responsible 
or not responsible, interested or disinterested, hypochondriac, or busy- 
bodies in other men's matters, he did not say,) and obtained answers to 
those inquiries, on which they had come to the conclusion, viz.. That 
the President was unpopular, and that his unpopularity was the cause 
of the diminution referred to ; and that unless he anticipated the action 
of the Board by resignation, he v^ould probabhj he removed! 

The first remonstrance of the writer was, against the mode of the whole 
proceeding, as being contrary to the plainest precepts of justice and hu- 
manity ; and he was proceeding, at some length, to enforce this posi- 
tion, when he was stopped by Col. Bond with an intimation, in effect, that 
his language was a violation of privilege. "Are we a Board of Trustees,'* 
said he, addressing himself to his colleague, with a peculiarity of man- 
ner not to be mistaken, " or are we not } I thought we were ; but, per- 
haps, I am mistaken." The writer, thus rebuked, endeavoured to jus- 
tify himself, by stating that he was not calling in question the constitu- 
tional powers of the Board of Trustees, but only the equity of their 
present mode of proceeding under those powers ; which last was deem* 
ed to be, at all times, a proper subject of discussion, unless they assumed 
incontrovertibly^ the right to do wrong. Some pains were taken to en- 
force this distinction, but without any very clear evidence that it was 
appreciated, as the same language was afterwards used by Col. Bond, 
when speaking to his colleagues on this part of our conversation. 

A second remonstrance was made generall}', against the charge ot 
unpopularity, if true, being taken as a ground of accusation. Surely it 
was not, in itself, any evidence of wrong doing. The best and most 
faithful of men were often unpopular. The same charge had been 
brought against Bishop Mcllvaine, when chaplain at West Point, se- 
venteen years ago ; at which time, being then one of the senior officers 
of that Institution, the writer personally interested himself, by draw- 
ing up, and obtaining signatures to, a certificate in his behalf, on the 
ground that the charge was, in its nature, sophistical and invidious. 

He quoted also, from recollection, the substance of the argument 
then used by the Bishop, in a case, and under circumstances precisely 
similar to those in which it was now attempted to place himself.* 

* The following are some passages of that argument; — "The writer would ask, 
whether popularity is the test to which the labours of a minister of the gospel should 
be brought 1 Is it conclusive, or even very strong evidence, that a minister is faith- 
ful, zealous, and eminently spiritual, when he can be styled a popular minister 1 Is it 
a very stro.ig evicence that a minister is not faithful, zealous, and spiritual, when it 
cannot be said of him, that he is a popular minister 1 . . . . What would St. Paul 
have thought of such a test for hia ministry 1 . . . . That apostle was rather unpo- 



.^ • STAtEMENt, &C. ' ^ ^ 

Silt \vhat, it was asked, is the nature and state of the unpopularity al- 
leged in this particular instance ? Was the writer in ill favour with 
the mixed community of " the Hill ?" If so, it might easily be ac- 
counted for without involving the slightest dereliction on his part. But 
how could such unpopularity affect the external patronage of the In- 
stitution ? If it were supposable that such persons could indulge their 
malevolence by using influence for the diminution of that patronage, it 
would be a strange perversion of justice to visit upon him the penalty 
of their unnatural wickedness.* 

Was he unpopular with the college faculty ? Impossible ! The idea 
of unfriendliness or antipathy in that quarter was irreconcilable with 
the evidences of approbation and confidence he had steadily received 
from them for more than a year past, without supposing a degree of 
duplicity which had not yet fallen within the range of the writer's 
experience. But even if the fact were so, how could the covert hos- 
tility of those gentlemen operate upon the external patronage of the 
Institution in any way to inculpate the writer ? With regard to the 
students, [if that were a proper reference in such a case] it was 
hardly to be expected — the writer had never presumed to flatter him- 
self, that in the responsible situation in which he was placed, he should 
be able to command the unqualified approbation of those who were the 
subjects of discipline. The burden of this department had, under pe- 
culiar circumstances, been thrown so entirely upon his shoulders, that 
it would have been most extraordinary indeed, if he had not incurred 
a great deal of unpopularity. "f" 

He was by no means indifferent to this consideration, but he had 
never allowed it to intervene when the course of duty was plain. His 

pular at Damascus, when he escaped over the wall in a basket ; and at Lystra, when 
he was stoned and drawn out of the city apparently dead. . . . Would it not have 
been a much more evangelical procedure to inquire whether Mr. Mcllvaine had ma- 
nifested a deep concern for the souls of men, and a lively zeal for the glory of the 
liedeemer'?" &c., &c. The force of these quotations would evidently be none the 
less, were the phrase " minister of the gospel," changed to " President of a college ;'^ 
in either case, the character of the individual is to be weighed, by the essential 
merit or demerit of his actions, not by the uncertain and variable incident of popular 
favour. 

* Some conversation occurred at this stage of the interview, in reference to cer- 
tain peculiarities in the social state and organization of " the Hill." It was shown, 
for instance, to be in the power of certain leaders there, to affect the local unpopu- 
larity of any individual upon whom they might think proper to bestow their attention, 
of which examples were quoted. Col. Bond seemed to have a just apprehension of 
this state of things, and suggested to the writer that a change of position could not 
but be conducive to his own happiness. " These people," he remarked, " are inca- 
pable of appreciating you, and wih always make you unhappy." He had recently 
returned from the East, and on a previous occasion, at Cincinnati, had expressed a 
preference for the society and associations of New-York, which he now strongly 
reiterated; but the suggestion was respectfully declined. 

t Professor Ross was averse to the administration of discipline beyond the limits 
of his own lecture room, and took no part in it except as it came up in the meetings 
of the "Faculty. Professor Sandels and Dr. Thrall resided at some distance from 
the College," and the latter was also prevented by his professional duties as a physi- 
cian. The tutors were generally recent graduates, and but little accustomed to 
exert, without support, the authority usually exercised by that gi'ade of officers in 
eastern college.«i 

2 



10 STATEMENT, &C. 

steady aim had been, the establishment of a sound parental discipline ; 
and whatever difficulties he might, for a time, encounter in the prose- 
cution of it, he did not doubt — he had in fact begun to realize, that it 
would certainly secure, not only the permanent interests of the Insti- 
tution, but the confidence and approbation of all its intelligent and 
right-minded pupils. 

Another subject of remonstrance in the course of this interview was 
the assumption of the writer's unpopularity, supposing it granted in 
any sense, as the cause of the diminished numbers. The relation of 
cause and effect necessarily implies some correspondence in circum- 
stances, between the terms so related ; which correspondence did not 
appear in the present case, to exist. The Institution commonly so 
called, is constituted federally, of four subordinate Institutions ; the 
Theological Seminary proper ; Kenyon College ; the senior Grammar 
School ; and the junior Grammar School. Now, the diminution of 
numbers, if caused by the unpopularity of the President, would clearly 
be most conspicuous in, if not wholly confined to that particular Insti- 
tution of which he was President ; whereas, it was notorious in fact, 
that Kenyon College, among all these elementary Seminaries, was pre- 
cisely the one which had experienced no material diminution. It had 
been avowedly undergoing the process of purgation for two or three 
years past, and yet, was upon as good a footing as to numbers as at 
the commencement of the present Incumbency ; while the two gram- 
mar schools had fallen off— one fifty, and the other seventy-five per 
cent. ; and the Theological Seminary, including in its list one of the 
college tutors, and an undergraduate, transferred expressly to fill up, 
numbered but five students. 

Some questions were asked in the course of the conversation, im- 
plying that the discipline, in regard to the dismission of students, might 
have been too perem.ptory. No particular instance was stated, and the 
allegation could only be met therefore in general terms. Dismissions, 
it was observed, were always the wojk of the Faculty, not of the 
writer — no one of that body was more earnest than himself to save 
students from that penalty, Avhen it could be done without endangering 
the permanent well-being of the Institution. In many instances he 
had expressed his aversion to the punishment of dismission, when his 
colleagues were unhesitatingly in favour of it ; and very rarely, if ever, 
' vice versa.''* He was the only parent in the Faculty who had actu- 
ally trained up sons to man's estate through all the vicissitudes of 
college life, and was more likely, therefore, by the recollection of his 
own feelings, to sympathize with the anxieties of other parents. 

Finally, if the Board of Trustees, or the President of that Board, 
thought this punishment had been resorted to unnecessarily, they 
were competent to restrain it. But so far from having yet done so, 
they had actually passed votes of approbation, in the severest cases 

* In one instance, by parental management, he had been instrumental in saving 
to the Institution and to themselves, an entire senior class — eight in number ; and of 
reclaiming by similar means, in another, no less than fourteen, who had unfortu- 
nately connected themselves in an unlawful combination. 



STATEMENT, &C. 11 

vKich had ever occurred. And Bishop Mcllvaine, very far from dis- 
approving it, had, in repeated instances, urged a degree of severity in 
the- use of it, greatly be3'ond what the writer was disposed to inflict.* 

In the progress of this interview, the other members of the Commit- 
tee of six were called in, viz. Cummings, Dennison, Reynolds and 
Pritchard, and took some part in the conversation that ensued. The 
conference continued somewhat over an hour, and embraced a variety 
of incidental topics besides those above mentioned. "j" 

It terminated, however, without any definite result, calculated to 
allay the anxiety which had given rise to it. No reasoning the writer 
could use, seeming to make the least impression upon the Committee. It 
became at length evident to his mind, that his removal, by any means, 
was the thing decided upon, and that the plea of unpopularity was only 
adopted as the most plausible pretext under which to accomplish it. 
Thus in the brief space of a single hour, his convictions had passed 
from the extreme assurance that he should certainly spend the balance 
of his days on " the Hill," to the opposite certainty that he was to be 
dismissed forthwith ; and Ihat, by a process concocted wholly in the 
secret councils of the Bishop's study, without an accusation or charge 
of any kind alleged, or pretended to be allegible, against him. Some 
enemy had evidently had a hand in this matter, but the proceeding 
had been developed to the mind of the writer with such suddenness, 
that he found it difficult, for a time, to reason calmly upon it. J 

The Committee, looking at their watches, had already withdraM'n 
and joined their colleagues in the study, before the writer was fully 
awake to the realities of his situation ; he then retired from the house, 
and after two or three turns on the walk, became sufficiently composed 
to communicate the sad intelligence to his wife- ' * * * * 

On the following morning, (Thursday, 29th February,) Col. Bond 
and General Cumming called upon the writer, in an apparently friendly 
way, being about to take leave. They stated that the committee of 

* A remarkable case of this kind occurred during the preceding summer vacation, 
(1843,) in reference to a clique' of southern young men, seven or eight in number, 
sowe of whom had incurred the discipHne of the Institution. It was urged by the 
Bishop, with no little earnestness, that the whole of them should be dismissed forth- 
with ; and he went so far as to say, " that he could not leave home contentedly," 
(on his second visit to New-York,) " except this v,ras done." Reasons were given 
for this severity, but, as some of them were of a personal nature, it is not thought 
expedient, at present, to quote them. It was in consequence of this sentiment, so 
strongly expressed by the Bishop, that the departure of all these young gentlemen, 
on various grounds, was favoured by the writer, when, in some instances, he 
might have retained them. And this, it may be remarked, u>as the extent of all the 
■diwiinution in the College classes, [save one,] from tiie session of the Board in Sept. 
1843, to the date of this conversation, Feb. 2Sth, 1S-J4. 

t It is not pretended that the discussion was carried on in the precise order of the 
topics, as here enumerated, nor always, except when quoted, in precisely the same 
words. The writer has aimed to give the substance merely, in the order and language 
best calculated to convey a clear and correct impression of it, and for that he stands 
pledged. 

ij: " I will be hanged if some eternal villain, 
" Some busy and insinuating rogue, 
" Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office, 
"Have not devised this slander." 



12 STATEMENT, &C. 

I 

six had made their report, and the Board would undoubtedly remove 
the writer if he did not resign. Col. Bond again urg^ed him, in the most 
persuasive manner, to tender his resignation, not because there was 
anything against him, but because these people* would make him very 
uncomfortable, and he might be so much more agreeably situated in an 
Institution at the East. 

The writer stated, in reply, that under present circumstances he 
should be governed by no consideration of this sort ; if " these people" 
chose to persecute him, they could do so ; but he would not endorse 
their wickedness by any concurrence whatever. As to resignation, it was 
totally out of the question : " if I am to die," he said, " I die in harness." 

Such was the conclusion of that overture, after which the two gen- 
tlemen took their leave. In about half an hour after, Col. Bond re- 
turned with Mr. Smallwood, representing themselves as a Committee 
to communicate the following paper : 

" Whereas, a report has been made to this Board, by a Committee ap- 
pointed to ascertain the causes of the diminution in the patronage of 
the Institution, which report charges, in part, the loss of patronage to 
a defect in the government of the College,! and recommends a resolu- 
tion requesting President Douglass to resign. Therefore, 

" Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to wait on Piesi- 
dent Douglass and make known to him the foregoing facts, and to in- 
form him that the Board are ready and willing to hear his defence, in 
the premises, if he desires it ; and that the committee appoint time 
and place for the examination." 

The perusal of this paper gave rise to the following dialogue, sub- 
stantially, between the writer and the Committee. " Gentlemen," 
said he, " you speak of a defence, will you please to tell me what are 
the charges against me .^" Mr. Smallwood, on the part of the commit- 
tee, observed, that " the paper spoke of a defect in the government of 
the College.''^ " Well," said the writer, " is that a charge against me ? 
if so, what is the meaning of it .?" Mr. S. replied, " we have seen a 
letter from a o-entleman in Kentucky, who has heard that there is some 
licentiousness in the college, and fearing there may be some defect in the 
government in this respect, he writes to inquire." " And is this," replied 
the writer," the foundation of a capital charge against me .' I thought a 
charge was generally founded upon fact ! Let me understand you, gentle- 
men ! last night you were speaking of my discipline being too severe ; now 
3^ou would imply that it has not been severe enough ; you cannot make 

* He was understood to refer to some particular person, or persons, on " the Hill," 
who were hostile, and the nature of the hostility was illustrated by the parallel case 
of Dr. Fell, quoted by Col. Bond. 

" I do not like you. Dr. Fell, 

" The reason why I cannot tell ; 

" But this, at least, I know full well, 

" I do not like you. Dr. Fell." 

t The report itself is inserted below, and will be seen to contain no such charge. 
The disagreement is of little consequence in itself, but it shows very plainly the shifts 
to which the Board was reduced in their effort to find out a plausible ground for their 
contemplated action. 



STATEMKNT, &C. 13 

both these issues together. However, if you choose, I can answer 
them both. Tell the gentleman in Kentucky, that the case to which 
he alludes, [I know very well what it was,] was punished with instant 
expulsion. 1 presume that will be sufficient. And then, if any one 

thinks we were too severe, tell him that was dismissed for so 

and so, (stating the case.) Was that too severe?" " Certainly not," 
was the answer. " Very well then gentlemen, that matter is disposed 
of; anything more .?"• Mr. Smallwood then inquired, whether the wri- 
ter " had heard the statements made to them by Professor Sandels ;" 
and not receiving an immediate answer, [the writer being somewhat 
amazed by this reference,] he was proceeding to state some of the par- 
ticulars, when he was stopped by Col. Bond, and went no further. 
" Col. Bond," said the writer, " will you tell me what are the charges 
against me ?" " Nothing at all, sir," said he, with strong emphasis ; 
" I have not heard the beginning of any charge against you whatever." 
" Then," said the writer, " I have no defence to make. When I am 
called in question for any official misconduct, or impropriety of any 
kind, I shall be ready to respond to it in a prop?r manner. At present^ 
the idea of a defence is absurd ; nor would you. Col. Bond, as a law- 
yer, advise me to make it." Nothing further, of consequence, trans- 
pired, and the gentlemen took their leave. 

Three of the gentlemen came to dinner, viz., Smallwood, Rogers,, 
and Delano. Just before going in, Mr. Wing, Secretary of the Board,, 
called, with another communication, as follows : 

" At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Theological Semina- 
ry, &c., held this day, the following report and resolutions were unani- 
mously adopted, and secretary requested to communicate the same ta 
President Douglass, and report to the Board his answer at two o'clock, 
P. M. 

" The Committee, which has had in charge the inquiry into the causes 
that have produced the existing diminution in the number of the stu- 
dents belonging to the classes of Kenyon College, and Preparatory 
Schools, has had the subject in anxious consideration, and made all the 
investigation in their power, and report, that, in their view, two facts 
have mainly led to the present state of things — one is, the high charges 
in the Senior Grammar school, whereby that department is almost re- 
duced to a nonentity. The other they mention with great reluctance, 
because it attaches to a most excellent man, well worthy of universal 
respect and affection — the point to which they refer is the unpopularity 
of the President. In regard to the justice of this difficulty, the Com- 
mittee do not pretend to speak ; but it is believed, by us, to exist, and 
to operate prejudicially to the Institution over which he presides. The 
Committee, therefore, recommend the adoption of the following reso- 
lutions : 

1. " That the charge for tuition in the Senior Preparatory School be 
reduced, &c. 

2. " That, while we sincerely deprecate the necessity, we are con- 
strained, in view of all the circumstances of the case, respectfully to 
ask President Douglass to resign his official relation to this Institution | 



14 STATEMENT, &C. 

assuring him, at the same time, that the Board, as a body, and indi- 
vidually, entertain for him the kindest feelings of regard. 

3. " That the salary of President Douglass be paid him to the first 
of September next."* 

After looking over this paper, the writer informed Mr. Wing that he 
should probably not answer it ; but when Mr. Smallwood went up from 
the dinner table, he had changed his purpose, and requested the latter 
to say that he would write a few lines and wait upon the Board as soon 
as he had done so. Accordingly, about four o'clock, P. M., he went 
to their place of meeting, and read the following paper : 

Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees, ^c. 

I decline acting upon your suggestion, communicated by Mr. 
Wing, for reasons which I cannot but believe your sense of rectitude 
and justice will approve. 

In the first place, I am not unpopular in the sense assumed by the 
Boai'd. Most men in public stations, and especially those who have 
discipline to administer, are unpopular in some sense, and so I may be, 
but not in a way to impugn my character or usefulness as an officer of 
this Institution. The Board has made out a case, it seerps, satisfactory 
to itself, but by a process secret and inquisitorial, and in the highest 
degree oppressive and unjust. No public character, in any station of 
responsibility, could stand before such an inquest ; and I here respect- 
fully, but solemnly, enter my protest against it. 

Secondly, the circumstance alleged, if true, is no ground of proceeding 
against me. Popularity in itself, is no test of faithfulness ; it may be 
impaired by causes, for which the party concerned is not in the slightest 
degree responsible ; in some instances it may be even an evidence of 

* 1. The process by which this Committee pretend to have arrived at their conclu- 
sion, was wholly secret and ex parte — conducted by persons little, if at all acquainted 
with the domestic economy of the Institution, or with the social condition of "the 
Hill," and incompetent therefore, to test, if they were so disposed, either the credi- 
bility, or the weight and bearing of the statements they received. It consisted of a 
few hasty visits, generalized just so far as to avoid exposing the agency of accom- 
plices, but without embracing in its results, any of the statements of the uninitiated, 
except as they happened to suit, or could be wrested to the contemplated end. This 
miserable mockery the Committee have the hardihood to call an " investigation," 
and the shallow survey founded upon it, a " view of all the circumstances." 

2. Why was the process secret, and without notice to the party concerned 1 Should 
it be said there was no party concerned prior to inquiry, this would answer the sc- 
rond member of the question, but not the Jirst : nor can it be explained why the Pre- 
sident of the College was not called, ab initio, to the deliberations of the Board, on 
such a subject, except by the fact that there was a presentment anterior to all inqui- 
ry. Let any president of a college realize the case. 

3. The merits of the alleged unpopularity, the Committee do not profess to have 
inquired into ; yet this is precisely the question, and the only question which, in re- 
ference to the President's official character, they ought to have investigated. " St. 
Paul was rather unpopular at Damascus ;" was he criminal therefore 1 The martyrs 
who in various ages have witnessed, or suffered reproach for the faith, were they 
malcfHCtors *? Such, however, would be the verdict of this Committee. 

4. The report contains no explanation whatever for the diminution of fifty per cent, 
at Mihior Hall. 

5. The third resolution is mere surplusage. The President iaentitled to salary for 
the balance of the academic year, and could recover it at common law. 



STATEMENT, &C. 15 

unfaithfulness. This point was well argued by Bishop McIIvaine^ 
when the same allegation was made against him as Chaplain at West 
Point, in 1S27 ; and fortunately there was not wanting, on '-hsX occasion^ 
a friend, ready to stand forth in his behalf, in the face of a deeper seated 
hostility than can be conceived of here.* 

Thirdly, the circumstance alleged, however it may be true in fact, 
is wholly insufficient to account for the facts of v/hich it is assumed as 
the cause. The falling off in numbers is not in the College classes, but 
in the Grammar schools. The effective number in those classes when 
I came here was thirty-seven, it is now thirty-nine, and has not materi- 
ally varied from that number in all the intermediate time. In the 
senior Grammar school however, there has been a diminution from forfy- 
two year before last, to twenty-four last year, and eleven now. So also 
in the Junior Grammar school, ivom. fifty-four last year, to twenty-seven 
or eight now. But what is that to me 1 I have nothing to do with the 
internal affairs of those schools ; I took no credit for their increase, and 
I protest against being held in any way responsible for their decrease. 
The real causes I apprehend in both cases, were very easily ascertainedy 
\i that had been the object of your committee.^ 

I might state other matters appropriate to this subject, but I forbear ; 
the time is short, and I am already, perhaps, extending my privilege 
too far ******* 

Conscious as I am, of entire rectitude in the performance of my duties ; 
of sincere and unhesitating devotion of heart and soul, to the interests 
of Kenyon College, which no one can deny has greatly improved under 
my administration ;J certain I may add also of having the love and es- 

* The writer lays claim to no merit for the part he took on that occasion. He 
believed it to be the part of justice and humanity, and as such, performed it willingly j 
yet, in point of fact, he did incur the censure of several of his old professional friends ; 
some, with whom he had even passed the "Baptime de feu," of 1814. Even the 
signers of the certificate were displeased, not having anticipated the use to be made 
of it. 

t The heads of these Institutions, were Professor Sandels, in the Senior Grammar 
school, and Messrs. Blake and Badger in the Junior, at Milnor Hall. A visitorial 
office was' committed to the writer — of which he was not aware, till after his arrival 
at Gambler — but which he faithfully discharged. His visits to Milnor Hall, in par- 
ticular, were frequent till he had reason to believe they were regarded by the heads 
of that institution with jealousy, and then after a conversation with one of them, 
they were in part discontinued. His official relation to the Senior school, was of 
the same nature, though in practice somewhat more intimate, from the fact, that the 
pupils occupied part of the college building. 

The causes of the decline of both these institutions were no mystery : that of the 
Senior Grammar school, had been a frequent subject of expostulation with Professor 
Sandels ; and those of the Junior Grammar school, not only spoken of to the prin- 
cipals, but in part, confidentially to the Bishop ; and thus it was believed, and is 
still believed, the visitorial responsibility was fully discharged. 

A bishop would hold a very tmenviable position, if he was held officially ac- 
countable for the decline of every particular parish in his diocese. 

I In the three years of the writers incumbency, the interior of the College edifice, 
which had become disgracefully dilapidated and filthy, was overhauled and put in 
thorough repair. A large portion of the plaister and joinery work entirely renewed, 
rooms neatly painted and papered, and furnished with bed-steads, straw mattresses, 
wash-stands, tables and chairs — a system of police was also introduced, by which 
these articles with the rooms and appurtenances, were minutely registeredj and the 



16 . STATEMENT, &C. 

teem of a large portion of those under my charge ; nearly half of them 
being my clients by their own voluntary choice; I cannot consent to 
give up the high ground on which 1 feel that I am standing, by the 
tender of my resignation. The Board may pass an ostracism upon me — • 
be it so. With a firm and reverent reliance upon that Providence 
which has covered my head in the day of battle, I shall endeavour to 
meet and bear the blow ; but / iv\U never cease to protest against it, as 
an act o^ flagrant crurjlij, injustice^ and oppression. 

(Signed) D. B. Douglass. 

Gambia; 20th Fcbruari/, ISM. 

The writer withdrew immediately after reading this paper, and in 
the evening, while he was with his family at the Thursday evening 
lecture, Mr. Wing, again called and left on his table a package, contain- 
ing the final proceedings of the 15oard, as follows : 

*•' At a meeting of the Board of Trustees, of the Theological Seminary 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the Diocese of Ohio, held at 
Gambier, this 29th February, 1844 ; the following resolution, was, on 
motion, unanimously adopted. 

" Resolved — That in the opinion of this Board, President D. B. Doug- 
lass, L.L.D. has ever bestowed his best endeavours to promote the 
interests of the Institution over which he presides ; and that as a 
Board of Trustees, we entertain for him a high regard, as a gentleman 
of integrity and moral worth." 

Certified Copy. M. T. C. Wing, Secretary. 

Also on a separate paper, with the same caption, the recital and re- 
solution following, viz : 

" Whereas, President Douglass, for reasons specified to him, has been 
requested by this Board to resign his ofFxCe as President and Professor 
in Kenyon College ; and whereas, he has declined to do so ; therefore, 

" Resolved^ That the connexion of D. B. Douglass, L.L.D. with Ken- 
yon College as President and Professor thereof, be, and the same is, 
hereby dissolved." 

Certified Copy. M. T. C. Wing, Secretary. 

These papers were accompanied by a caveat, signed by the members 

care and ancountdbilily of them identified. An entire reform had also been effected 
in the general and personal discipline ; of which the Patronage system, the Matricula- 
tion system, and that of merit, and of College honors, as set forth in the Catalogue, 
are a part; and of which the benefits were strongly exhibited in the improved de- 
portment and character of the students. Improvements had also been made on the 
grounds of the College. These had hitherto lain open in commons ; and around the 
doors of the edifice were defiled with wood piles, ash heaps, and rubbish of every 
description; now, they were inclosed and cultivated as a College Park. More than 
400U trees and saplings, were taken up by the roots, and the undergrowth cleared 
out — 1 or 500 tons of stone picked up — the Campus cleaned off, smoothed and seeded 
with grass — shrubbery planted — walks laid out — and an avenue of stone and gravel 
carried out, about 500 yards from the front of the College, with a handsome gate way 
of cut stone erected at the end of it. 

False reports have been circulated as to the expense of these improvements to the 
College, of which notice will be tak"" 'ipreafter. 



STATEMENT, &C. 17 

of the board present, setting forth that the bishop had taken no part in 
their proceedings ; and doubtless intended to convey tlie idea that he 
had no part in the subject matter* 

On the receipt and perusal of these documents, about nine o'clock — 
the work of the Board being now complete — the writer assembled his 
family, and communicated to them the intelligence of their common 
calamity. He will not trespass upon the feelings of the reader, by more 
than a mere allusion to this most trying and painful occasion. Many 
of those interested had previousl}'' known nothing of the events which 
a single day had been bringing forth ; and to them therefore, it was the 
utter and instant prostration of their whole scheme of life. In the 
midst of it all however, it was our happiness to enjoy a more than or- 
dinary sense of reliance upon divine Providence ; and this, with the 
absence of all occasion for self reproach, kept us from an excess of sor- 
row. Honour had been saved, though all else had been lost. 

The news of the writer's dismissal created, as might be expected, a 
very considerable sensation in the College. For some daj'-s study was 
in a great measure suspended, and although nothing was known of the 
real merits of the case, and there was of course room for the wildest 
rumors, it was evident from the deportment of the students generally, 
that there must be, to some extent, a feeling towards him of sym- 
pathy and kindness. To what extent he did not yet know. He had 
been dismissed for unpopularity, and in the absence of distinct evidence, 
for he had never hitherto asked the question, he presumed that he must 
be unpopular, at least among those to whom the restraints of govern- 
ment were irksome. The experience of a week, however, served to 
dissipate this impression. In the course of this time he had received 
from every member of the College and Senior Grammar school, per- 
sonally, the most decided expressions of confidence and regard ;'j" and 
eventually by their own spontaneous act, the following letter, dated — 

''Kenyan College, March lith, 1844. 

« D. B. Douglass, L. L. D. 

" Dear Sir- — We, the undersigned, students of Kenyon College, in 
consideration of the late unfortunate change which you have experi- 
enced in being suddenly removed from the Presidency of said Institu- 
tion, take pleasure in bearing our testimony to the diligence and zeal 
with which you have pursued such measures as you deemed condu- 

* The board may have been sincere in this belief; but if so, they must have known 
very little of the politics of Gambler ; and it will be seen hereafter, that even the 
bishop himself does not sustain them as to the fact. 

t An attempt has been'^made to cast censure upon the writer as having assembled 
the students at his own house ; excited them to insubordination, &c. The statement 
is wholly untrue. The classes were permitted to call upon him in compliance with 
their own request. It was granted without hesitation, as the writer had neither com- 
mitted, or was accused of any crime, and why should he refuse 1 So far from having 
stimulated them to insubordination, he publicly cautioned them in the chapel against 
anything of the kind, and admonished privately to the same eflect, those who were his 
clients. ' He did indeed, read and explain to them the documents which have been 
quoted, but it was the opinion of Professor Ross that this might have been done in 
the chapel, publicly. 

3 * 



18 STATEMENT, &C. 

cive to the interests and welfare of the Institution ; also to your sincere 
kindness and hospitality in endeavouring to enhance our comfort and 
happiness, and to secure our affections. 

" We would also freely express our entire confidence of your strict 
integrity, and in your gentlemanly character ; our high respect for your 
eminent attainments in science, your moral and religious worth, which 
do honour to you and to your country. In taking our leave, we feel 
the liveliest interest for your future happiness, and also for that of your 
family ; and do assure you that you carry away our sincere respect, 
and our most earnest wishes that God would abundantly prosper both 
you and them, in basket and store, body and mind, to the end of 
life. 

" With this expression, dear sir, of our sentiments and feelings, we 
bid you an affectionate farewell." 

(Signed by 51, being the ivhole number of College and senior Gram- 
mar School students, including one or two passed students, resident on 
the Hill, and not including the two sons of the writer.) 

It will be understood by the intelligent reader that the above letter 
is not published as a voucher of the writer's character, but simply as 
an evidence of the kind feelings of the students, unanimously, towards 
him ; and in this aspect he never can cease to regard it, coming as it 
does from those among whom it had been his duty to exercise, in some 
instances, even the severities of a parental but unyielding discipline, 
hut as one of the most valued and pleasing testimonials of filial confi- 
dence and esteem. With this letter, the writer ventures to rest the 
question of his unpopularity. 

Whoever shall have read with attention the following details, can 
hardly fail, it is believed, of perceiving that the allegation of unpopu- 
larity must have been a mere pretext — 7ion causa pro caii»a — to cover 
up and excuse an arbitrary and violent proceeding ; and he will most 
naturally look for some other cause ; — perchance a human motive and 
human agent, to account for this so singular and sudden ejection of the 
head of a College from office ; not only without accusation, but in the 
face of a unanimous vote of high approbation. 

That the reader may be enabled to form some judgment of that mo- 
tive and agency, the writer will now submit a brief statement of facts 
explanatory of the circumstances under which he became connected 
with, and held office in the Institution. 

The first occasion of interest felt by the writer in the seminary at 
Gambler, dates back as early as the year 1826-7 — the epoch of Bishop 
Chace's effort to raise a College endowment, in addition to that previ- 
ously raised for the Theological Seminary. In the winter of that year, 
while the Bishop was endeavouring to obtain a grant of land from 
Congress, the writer met him at the table of the then Secretary of 
State, (Hon. H. Claj'.) at Washington, and received from him a most 
interesting account of what he was doing and expected to do, for the 
Institution : And it was in the power of the writer, through his class- 



STATEMENt, &C. IQ 

mate and intimate friend, Mr. Kane, (Senator from Illinois,) to con-^ 
tribute somewhat towards the interest then beginning to be felt in that 
behalf. 

The next occasion was in the year 1832, when the Rev. Mr. McII- 
"Vaine, with whom the v/riter had long been upon terms of the most 
unreserved intimacy, was elected Bishop of Ohio ; and this interest 
ivas not a little increased, when, on his (the Bishop's) first Ansit to his 
new field of labour, before the removal of his family, he caused it to 
be intimated through Mrs. M., that a Vice Presidency would be insti- 
tuted, which he intended expressly for the occupancy of the writer. 
This idea Was strongly enforced by the Bishop personally, after his re- 
turn to the East ; and in his appeal to the liberality of the community 
about that time, it was publicly announced in the following terms. 
" The office of Vice President has recently been created, to which will 
be attached the Professorship of Natural Philosophy. This has been 
done for the purpose of relieving the Bishop and President of all other 
than a very general superintendence over the College proper. He will 
act in relation to it chiefly through the Vice President ; and he is 
happy to say that a pious layman of the Episcopal Church, of high 
reputation for science, and of much experience in college education 
and government, is expected to take that office." 

Under the Bishop's earnest solicitation the writer was induced to 
accept this office ; and a few extracts from the letters of the former, 
after his removal to Ohio, will show the interest with which that con- 
cession was regarded by him. Under date July 27th, 1832, he thus 
writes : 

" Every thing promises well — much arrangement and organization 
are wanted, but the materials with which to do it are at hand, and 
good — it is the precise condition for which you are wanted, and in 
managing which, you will be in your element — you will be rejoiced 
at coming — your family will be more happy than ever before — your 

usefulness will be very great." " We only want a little time, and 

you to come on and take the lead, to be exceedingly effective-" ■ 

" We are at a stand about the church," &c. ^" How we want you 

for that purpose and for other churches — we are afraid to do any thing 
for ourselves in such a v/ork — do not delay any longer than is abso- 
lutely essential." " You will have full sweep when you come-" 

Aug. 12th. 1833. — " I am preparing a new code of laws to be laid be- 
fore the Trustees— a work in which I would give more than I can tell 
only to have you alongside of me for consultation — dear me, how I 

need you on all sides I" " I have given out that you are to have 

classes in Civil Engineering and Architecture," &c. 

In the summer of 1833, after the writer had his furniture nearly 
all packed for removal, circumstances connected with his professional 
business intervened, and obliged him after some little delay, to write 
to the Bishop retracting or deferring his acceptance. The following 
extract from the Bishop's letter in reply, will further illustrate the state 
of his feelings at that time, on the whole subject. 

" Alas ! the disappointment — that you are not to come for a year — 



20 STATEMENT, &C. 

tohat a blow ! — T reel under it." " You are the pivot of the whole 

machine — it tumbles to pieces without you.'' " The prospective 

character of the College is associated in the public mind with your be- 
ins; here next term — students come on that account — the Church is 
satisfied with my Presidency onhi because you as Vice President are 

expected to sustain the duties of President." " We shall be almost 

ruined if you remain in Brooklyn." " I shall be in despair." 

" Dear Major, I have no idea that your condition will be materially 

bettered by this new project." " Here, by yourself, your expenses 

will be almost nothino;, and I will share my last shilling with you — 
alas ! alas ! what shall we do ? The Professors to whom I have men- 
tioned your letter, are panic-struck — what shall we do .'' is the uni- 
versal exclamation." " It cannot be, dear Major, it is not duty to 

do so much hurt." 

Under date of 18th October, 1833, he again writes as follows : 

" Major, your coming out this fall is perfectly indispensable ; con- 
sider that you have been regularly appointed by the Trustees, the 
Vice President of the College, and Professor of Natural Philosophy ; 
that the appointment was made for the particular purpose of your 
taking immediately the government of the Institution ; — that the whole 
Diocese depends upon you to take that charge from my shoulders ; 
that the whole organization of the College has been framed with special 
reference to you as its executive head, and is almost a nullity without 
you ; that the present interest so generally felt in the College, arises 
out of the supposition that you are to be here from the commence- 
ment of next term," &c. " The Trustees will censure me for hav- 
ing brought the Collet!;e into such a dilemma — the donors will accuse 
me of havino; held out false encouragements to induce them to sub- 
scribe — it Avill be universally concluded that you are not to come at 
all, and I shall think so seriousl}^, for whatever your anticipations, I 
do not believe you will be any more at liberty in another year than 

you are now." "You are well known in the Reserve, where f 

have just been, and the public eye is on you as a great acquisition to 
the West. — 'When is Major Douglass to be at Gambler ." I was fre- 
quently asked. I answered, in spite of your letter, ' we expect him at 
the beginning of next term.' Am I to undergo the affliction and mor- 
tification of being disappointed .•"' &c. &c. 

,ln the course of the fcllovi'ing winter his (the Bishop's) urgency be- 
came so very pressing as to be painful to the writer, and he was 
obliged to remonstrate with him on the subject ; after which he de- 
sisted, and in his address to the Convention of 1834, the subject was 
disposed of in the follov/ing terms : 

" The apparatus of the department of Natural Philosophy has been 
increased by valuable donations from D. B. Douglass, Esq. who, 
though affectionately attached the to Institution, has been unavoidably 
prevented from becoming, as was hoped and expected, its Vice 
President." 

A further occasion of interest to the writer arose from his placing 
his two sons in the Institution, iu the year 1834 — both of whom re- 



STATEMENT, &C. 21 

mained to graudate ; one in 1837, the other in 1838, and who, during 
their continuance there, enabled him by their correspondence, in addi- 
tion to that of Bishop Mcllvaine, to realize current interests and 
events, nearly as if he had resided upon the spot. 

In the year 1840, the Bishop renewed his proposition to the writer to 
take office in the Institution, not as Vice-President of the Theological 
Seminary, but as President of Kenyon College ; — the mixed faculty, com- 
posed of Professors in Arts and Theology, having been resolved into 
two ; with separate Presidencies, for the Seminary and College. The 
terms in which this proposition was communicated, will further illus- 
trate the views and sentiments of the Bishop towards the writer, at that 
time. Under date of August 10th, he writes thus : 

" Dear Major — I wrote you hastily, yesterday, announcing your ap- 
pointment as President of Kenyon College, with a salary of $1,000, 
house, and ten acres of land, &c. I write now to say, the appointment 
is exceedingly popular, only it is predicted by certain, who would not 
be a little pleased to see my plans fail, that you will not come. I say 

you will, and all with me depends on that." " I do hope you will 

consent to consecrate yourself to this work for life" " You must 

come; I am killed if you do not," &c., &c. 

Under date of August 19th, he again writes as follows : 

" My Dear Major — I have received one letter from you, and think it 
encouraging — I do exceedingly hope that nothing will prevent your 
acceptance." 

Sept. 5th, as follows : " I am looking anxiously for a letter from you. 
I cannot go from home, nor fix upon anything ahead, till I hear your 
decision, which I do earnestly hope, with the most anxious hope — will 
be yes^ and immediately. Yours, most affectionately," &c. 

Sept. 8th and 18th, to the same effect. Sept. 21st, as follows : " I 
have been greatly relieved, to-day, by yours of the 14th, by which I 
conclude, as on the strength of it, I have given out that you are coming ; 

all sorts of rumors had been spread that you had declined." "I 

could only hope, but I have suffered great anxiety." "The ques- 
tions you proposed, as to the interference of the Board, &c., may all be 
answered in one sentence — they have never interfered in such things — 
all has been left to the Faculty — all under you will be — so you are left 
at ease on all such heads. — Therefore, I conclude that you will certain- 
ly come — and. Major, I do honestly believe, that it is your duty to the 
church — to your usefulness — to your family. 1 know you will ne- 
ver be as happy in Brooklyn as you may be here — I chose you because 
I wanted you for the College — but believing also that it would be good 
for you." 

Other letters in the same spirit follow — sometimes tAvo in a week, 
embracing various subjects of information and discussion, until the 
treaty was concluded by the writer's unreserved acceptance. 

It has been thought necessary to give some extension to these extracts, 
inasmuch as an attempt has been made to disparage the motives of the 
writer, and misrepresent the views and circumstances under which he 
was appointed to, and accepted the Presidency of the College. The at- 



22 STATEMENT, &C. 

tentive reader will hardly need to be told that it was in no selfish spi- 
rit, nor for considerations of private or personal advantage, that he was 
induced to remove to Gambier. Many of his intimate friends will bear 
him witness that it was, in fact, his long-cherished, devoted, and un- 
compromising attachment to Bishop Mcllvaine, that chiefly actuated 
him in taking that step. It had been understood from the Bishop's 
lips, as well as from his correspondence, that he was surrounded by 
enemies at Gambier ; and that he was likely to become the victim of a , 
systematic and unscrupulous opposition. All his talk with the writer^, 
during his visit to the east, just before the Convention of 1840, was * 
of resigning the Episcopate, in case he should not be able to command, 
in that Convention, the influence he desired.* Such were the circum- 
stances, in the view of the writer y-"^ and though he was anxious, certain- 
ly, to fill up the measure of his usefulness, and not unwilling to afford 
to his family the blessings of that peaceful retirement so eloquently por- 
trayed in some of the Bishop's letters ; his chief and inciting motive 
was, to rally for his friend, to stand by him, and hold up his hands in 
the struggle in which he was supposed to be engaged, and to sustain, to 
the uttermost in his power, and upon principle, the honour of the Episco- 
pate. 

The strength of this motive may be evidenced by reference to the 
sacrifices made, and difficulties encountered in carrying his acceptance 
into efi'ect. He was engaged in one of the most interesting and pleas- 
ing employments with which he had ever been occupied — the laying 
out and improvement of the Greenwood Cemetery. His professional 
income was at the rate of from $2,000 to $2,500 pel annum — the lat- 
ter sum at the moment of leaving. These were to be relinquished. On 
the other hand, his connections with various pecuniary interests in the 
cities of New- York and Brooklyn, at a time when the business of those 
cities was at its lowest ebb, were not to be dissolved but with very 
great difliculty, and at great sacrifice. His actual sacrifices- in the dis- 
position 0^ personal property amounted to more than one thousand dol- 
lars. And the removal of his family was itself, no inconsiderable item ; 
yet all this was encountered, and encountered cheerfully, under the in- 
fluence of the disinterested sentiment just quoted. 

The Ohio Convention of 1840, at Mount Vernon, broke down the 
organization of the party opposed to Bishop Mcllvaine, and established 
him in full power. " All now," he observed in one of his letters to the 
■yvriter — " all now see that I am head.'''' It was evident however, at 
the date of the writer's arrival at Gambier in March, 1841, that this 
circumstance had not enlirehj neutralized the elements of hosiilitj' at 
that place. The actual ebullition of party strife had indeed, subsided, 
but it needed not the intercourse of many days, to see that the leaven 
was still there ; social intercourse was at a stand ; suspicion and 
distrust seemed to pervade every thing ; and in the midst of it all, it 
was apparent that anything but a feeling of good will existed towards 

* The writer was wholly opposed to the alternative of resignation, and argued 

against it. 



STATEMENT, &C- 23 

the Bishop ; though some, whether from duty or policy, made a consi- 
derable show of external respect. 

To this community, thus circumstanced, the writer was introduced 
under the chaperonage of the Bishop himself — receiving from him, on 
the one hand, all his impressions of the recent controversies, as well as 
of the parties concerned in them ; and being identified with him, on the 
other, as his avowed friend and partisan — and so participating, of course, 
in all the odium of the discomfited party towards him. But this wa* 
not all. The new President and Faculty had come into office in the 
shoes, as it were, of the antagonist party — and the writer, in particular, 
as the head of the Academic body, had an invidiousness to bear, on that 
account, independently of his partisanship for the Bishop. 

It is not to be supposed that the writer had more than a very slight 
apprehension of the perils and difficulties of his position, as here exhi- 
bited, during the first period of his residence. He was aware — he had 
been so, even before he left Brooklyn — that he should be associated 
with a community somewhat distracted and demorahzed by previous 
dissensions ; but he was greatly in the dark as to the extent and real 
character of those dissensions, and wholly blind as to the invidiousness 
of his position relatively to them : Or if he may have had some slight 
fears for himself, on any of these accounts, they were neutralized by 
his implicit reliance on the firmness and reciprocal attachment of Bishop 
Mcllvaine. 

His first intercourse with the community at Gambler, under these- 
circumstances, necessarily involved some degree of antagonism. Al- 
most every body had something to say about the Bishop, and some were 
loud and unreserved in their denunciations of him ; these, when the 
writer was thrown in contact with them, were mildly checked, and if 
not so restrained — avoided. Others, more reasonable, and especially 
those whom the Bishop had expressed a desire to conciliate, were ap- 
proached with arguments, for the purpose of removing prejudice, and 
correcting ill feelings ; and the effects of this regimen steadily pursued, 
were soon apparent in the improvement of social intercourse, and a bet- 
ter state of feeling towards the Bishop. 

We come now to an important crisis in the affairs of the writer. In 
the course of the first year of his residence, whether under the influence 
of the action just mentioned, or from a change in the tactics of the mal- 
contents, it began to be noticed that those who had previously been ac- 
tive in their opposition to the Bishop, and in regard to some of whom 
he had expressed to the writer his want of confidence, had become, in 
a very particular sense, his active and apparently devoted friends. The 
writer was, at first, gratified, in observing this seeming evidence of good 
feeling, but he presently found, that as it became more decided, his oxen 
position became proportionably equivocal; and such was the progress of 
this change, that, by the summer of 1842, he was thrown back to a re- 
lation of bare civility, while the former enemies and opponents of the 
Bishop were enjoying the noontide beams of his Episcopal confidence 
and favour. It seemed as if the latter, after placing his ally in the " fore 
front," had consulted his own interest by going over to the enemy. But 



34 STATEMENT, &C. 

the theory of this movement will be better understood by a brief refe- 
rence to the writer's own official situation, relatively to the Bishop, at 
the period referred to. 

In the propositions made by Bishop Mcllvaine, during his treaty with 
the writer, nothing could exceed the largeness and liberality of his assu- 
rances ; — the powers of the Presidency were to be most full and ample, 
without any fear of undue interference in the academic administration 
of the College, from the Board, or an3'body else. It was to be really^ 
as in any other case, a Presidency. Soon after the writer's arrival at 
Gambler, finding that the constitutional character of the Institution, in 
conformity with the new organization, had not been fixed by any writ- 
ten code, he took an early occasion to converse with the Bishop on that 
subject, and to make some suggestions as to the elements of such a 
code. To his great surprise, the overture was received with marked 
impatience and displeasure ; and so inuch excitement shown, that the 
writer, in some alarm — not only at the temper exhibited, but at the ap- 
parent disposition not to realize the expectations previously held out — 
actually meditated countermanding his directions for his family and fur- 
niture to follow him. While seated in the Bishop's study, however, 
on the next evening, with this thought in mind, the latter came in, 
with a very changed air, and putting his arm familiarly over the writer's 
shoulder said, " Dear Maj ! you are a good fellow after all." Be- 
ing reminded of his language of yesterday^ he apologised for it, and pro- 
ceeded — "you understand all about these matters (college organiza- 
tion, &c.) much better than I do. Only give us a little time to breathe, 
and you shall have it all as 3'ou desire." " As much as you please," 
the writer replied, " so we onl}'^ understand each other," &c., &c. 

Reassured by this conversation, the writer dismissed all thought of 
countermanding his arrangements, and entered with alacrity upon his Pre- 
sidential duties. There was no lack of employment. The bishop had 
prepared the writer to expect a field of more than ordinary responsibi- 
lity and labour, in the various improvements of the college ; and that 
expectation was soon abundantly realized. His office was not the less 
pleasing, however, on that account ; the greatness of the labour in a 
"work of so much intrinsic dignity and importance, rather gave a stimulus 
to his ardour, and being relieved fron) all doubt, as to the hearty concur- 
rence and co-operation of his friend, the Bishop, he gave himself un- 
reservedly to its multifarious duties.* 

In the progress of the season of 1841, the writer began to look for 
some movement on the part of the Bishop, in conformity with the as- 
surance above quoted ; and the more anxiously, as he began to experience 
some of the inconveniences of the undefined position in which he was 
placed. He thought it possible something would be moved, at the 

* The writer has no design in these or any other of his remarks, to disparage the 
labours of other members of the Faculty, in their respective departments. In some in- 
stances, these were most unexceptionable and praiseworthy. But he owes it to himself 
to state, what was the fact, that those gentlemen were all of recent appointment as a 
College Faculty, and but little accustomed to College administration ; and that, e.x- 
cept himself, not one of the professors had been throvgk College, or received an 
academic degree in course. 



»* 



STATEMENT, &C. 25 

meeting of the Trustees, at commencement in August, 1841 ; but to his 
astonishment, though several of the members had intended to meet the 
new President at that time, a circular was sent by the Bishop advising 
them not to come, and there was no meeting. He then looked to the 
meeting at ChiUicothe ; but, except to approve of some of the writer's 
plans for the improvement of the College and grounds, and transferring 
the care and preservation of them from the agent, to the President and 
Faculty, nothing transpired 5 and so far as the writer could judge, no 
movement was contemplated by the Bishop, in reference to the particu- 
lar matter referred to. The writer, at last, spoke to him on the subject, 
and was not a little pained to observe with what instant address it was 
evaded. Another meeting of the Board took place at Cincinnati, in the 
spring of 1842, from which, however, as the writer was not present, he 
expected no action ; but as the next convention, (1842,) was to sit at 
Gambier in September, he looked forward with confidence to that, as 
the proper occasion for defining all unsettled points, and establishing 
between the constituent and administrative bodies, such relations as 
were necessary for their successful and harmonious joint action. 

It was in the prosecution of these views — through Bishop Mcllvaine — 
in the precise manner stated, and always looking to him, and to him only, 
for the initial action — that the writer began first to experience the re- 
pulsive coldness and hauteur of that gentleman.* The first realization 
of this treatment he need not say was an occasion of deep grief to him. ; 
he looks back upon it, even now, as one of the severest afflictions of his 
life ; not so much for the thing itself, but for the motive and policy by 
which it was evidently prompted. It was the revelation of a trait in 
the Bishop's character, which, however, it may have been apprehended 
by others, had not been revealed to the writer in all the previous inter- 
course of sixteen years. 

For a long time he pondered his mortification in silence, nor was that 
silence broken by him, till the subject became a matter of remark to 
others, f 

In the mean time, another feature of most refined and subtle policy 
began to make its appearance in the connexion of these events. Vague 
rumors were put in circulation, that the President had some new and 
strange views about the Institution, in opposition to the Bishop ; that 
he was discontented with the present state of things, and contemplated 
some revolutionary movements — wishing to obtain more power — get a 
seat in the Board of Trustees, &c. 

It were easy to have shown the utter falsity of these rumours,J if 

* There were indications about the same time, that the Bishop's self-love had been 
wounded by the interest with which the improved state of things in Kenyon College, 
began to be spoken of ; but v/hether this or the motive stated in the text had pre- 
cedence, it would be difficult to determine, nor does it signify. 

t " He is a strange man," said one of the Professors, (not unfriendly to him,) with 
apparent knowledge of what had taken place ; " he will treat you with the utmost 
cordiality to-day, and without any visible reason, make a stranger of you to-moiTow ; 
you never know where to find him, and that is just the source of all our troubles here." 

X The writer at an early period of his incumbency, on one or two occasions, ran, 
hypothetically, a parallel between the organic structure and design of the Institution 
at Gambier, and the constitution of one cf the English Universities ; both being The- 

4 



26 . STATEMENT, &C. 

that could have been a circumstance of any avail ; but their influence 
in the small artificial and excitable community at Gambier, where the 
writer was comparatively a stranger, had been better calculated by him, 
or them, who gave them circulation. Almost before he was aware of 
it, the writer had been placed in a position so false, as entirely to pre- 
clude self-defence; while, as if by a previous concert, the alarm sound- 
ed, on the pretence of his antagonism to the Bishop, brought out the 
remnants of the old opposition — ^the faction which only two years before 
had crowded the Bishop to the verge of resignation — with holy horror 
to rescue the Episcopate. 

The writer has no means of knowing, to which side of the coalition, 
belongs the moral responsibility of this most adroit and politic movement. 
The Bishop may have been deceived as to the facts, but if so, his mind 
must have been in a peculiarly susceptible state. His actual part in 
the proceedings, whether original with himself, or suggested by others, 
is shown by his letter addressed to the writer, 16th of May, 1842, of 
which the following is an extract : 

" I have found while away, and at home, that there is veri/ great fear 
on the part of excellent friends of the College and of us, that certain 
views or aims of yours as to the Institution, will so clash with the present 
constitution, and with me as the head of the constitutional organization, 
or m}' sense of duty in that relation, as to injure yourself and the Insti- 
tution greatl}', and cause a difference and alienation betiveen you and ?«e, 
if not begun already, in case your views are attempted to be pushed." 

The purport of all this is so plain, as scarcely to need a commentar}''. 
It was an interposition, partly by authorit}'^ — partly by management, and 
in direct opposition to all former professions — to frustrate a legitimate 
exercise of the writer's mind and influence, for the benefit of the College. 
No object could be more desirable than to fix and establish the organic 
relations of the Institution, and define the duties and responsibilities of 
its different functionaries. The writer's " viev/s " on this subject wei-e 
open to discussion. He neither held them up to the consideration of 

ologicai in their object : both founded by the donations of pious men for the benefit 
of the church ; both federal in consrllution, having a collective unity, embracing- 
several distributive unities ; with a scheme of Government to correspond. And the 
perfeojion of the system had been illustrated con amoic, by an account of the actual 
working of it, in the foreign example. The writer knew no reason, nor does he yet 
know, why he should not be at liberty to speak on such a subject with the utmost 
freedom. His acquaintance M'ith academic organization, had been one of the very 
considerations under which he was called to take office in the Institution ; and yet 
it would seem, that the utterance of these thoughts, as a matter of theory only, was 
at Gamhicr, and for the occasion, a ground of serious reprehension. As to the charge 
of wishing to obtain a seat in the Board of Trustees ; it is not a very serious one. 
The exclusion scarcely exists in any other College than Kenyon, and is not even 
there, justified, upon principle. It was represented to the writer by one of the Trus- 
tees, as having been enacted after Bishop Mcllvaine became " head," for the pur- 
pose of excluding Dr. Sparrow and his party. The charge, however, so far as re- 
gards the writer, was tntnlly false. He had no wish on the subject. He thought, 
and still thinks the President of the College ought to have been present at all delib- 
erations afi'ecting that Institution ; he had been accustomed to a similar relation in 
corporate bodies, as a civil engineer ; but even this he did not urge as a personal 
wish. The Trustees were much more interested on this subject than himself 



STATEMENT, &C. 27 

others, or valued them himself, except as they were conformable to the 
terms of donation, [which he considered to be the fundamental law,] and 
the views of the original founder. So far from having any personal in- 
terest in them, they would, if realized, have transferred from him to the 
Bishop — without the slightest equivalent — several of his most dignified 
and responsible powers.* Yea, and this very circumstance was the 
chief consideration urged by the writer upon the Bishop in favour of 
speedy action ; since, if these were the true " views,'''' it was not likely 
that another President would be willing to make the concessions neces- 
sar}'' to carry them into effect. 

The Bishop's note not only restrained all further attempts to carry 
out the " views " of the writer in regard to the formation of a funda- 
mental code, but gave also an ominous intimation of what, in the 
Bishop's " view," was to constitute the " infallible rule " of the Insti- 
tution, instead of such a code. It was not pretended that the writer''s 
views were wrong ; but, that they might " clash with me (the Bishop) as 
head of the Constitutional organization, or with my (the Bishop's) 
sense of duty in that relation." 

" Sic volo, sic jubeo, pro ratione voluntas," was to be the test ; nor 
was the penalty of unsubjectiveness left in any very dubious obscurity. ■(• 

There was yet remaining a hope, though a faint one, that some more 
determinate rule might be adopted, when the Board met in September, 
and to that therefore, the writer looked forward with interest in propor- 
tion to the hope. But the time at length came, and the hope was — 
wholly " deferred." Although the writer had been in office nearly two 
years, and this was the first meeting of the Board at Gambler during 
that time, they met and re-met, and appointed their committees, (one of 
which inspected the College edifice,) with as little reference to the writer 
as if he had been the janitor or the sweeper. Exceedingly mortified at 
this want of common courtesy, and equall)^ anxious to effect some intel- 
ligible relationship with the board, he at length, on the third day of their 
session, addressed to them, through their President, the following note, 

^^^^"' " September 10th, 1S42. 

" Sir — The administration of Kenyon College has been nov/ a large 
part of two years in my hands as President. The present being the first 
meeting of the Board of Trustees which has taken place during that 
time, I have been in the habit of looking forward to it as an occasion of 
conference and consultation on the interests of the Institution — the views 
and principles under which it has been conducted, — its present circum- 
stances and future prospects. It seems (to me) manifestly fit and pro- 
per that some such communication should take place, and yet my situa- 

* Presiding at commencements, and on other solemn occasions ; conferring de- 
grees ,; and all executive functions of a general character, would have been vested in 
the Federal head or Chancellor, not in the President of the College. 

t The writer might waive perhaps, for the present, any question as to the 7-ectitude 
and micerity of these " vievjs " on the part of the Bishop ; but in so doing, he v/ouid 
necessarily impugn his (the Bishop's) frankness. For if he really and sincerely enter- 
tained them, there appears no excuse for his not having so informed the writer, before 
he called him from the East. The office to which he was called, under such condi- 
tions, would have been a Clerkship rather than a Presidency, 



28 STATEMENT, &C. 

tion here is so ver}' anomalous, that I hardly know how to proceed in 
regard to it, w^ithout seeming to be obtrusive. With a view to under- 
stand my position accurately, I last year requested a copy of all the acts 
of the Board relating to Kenyon College since the 16th March, 1839 ; 
it was not furnished however, and to this hour I have no means of 
knowing what is my relation to the Board of Trustees, or in what man- 
ner the interests of the Institution, of which I am President, are repre- 
sented in their session. In fact, I have had no official intercourse with 
them since your note, announcing my election, in August, 1S40. Within 
a few weeks, I have learned incidentally, that a resolution was passed, 
last year, in relation to my being present at the sessions of the Board, 
but even this has never been communicated, and not having had any 
notice of the times and places of meeting, I conclude that my informa- 
tion must have been erroneous. 

" I state these particulars not in the spirit of complaint, — although I 
confess the awkwardness of my position is a subject of painful reflec- 
tion, — but to excuse myself to the Board, if peradventure I may have 
seemed uncourteous to them in not attending their meetings, and to 
elicit also some information as to whether the Presidency of the College 
does place me in any practical relation to them or not. 

" Very respectfully, D. B. Douglass." 

This letter was answered by a resolution, referring to the constitu- 
tional exclusion of the President as to membership, but inviting him to 
communicate with the Board, on the interests of Kenyon College, as he 
might see proper ; icithout defining however his official relationship to 
the Board in general. But although no very tangible result was real- 
ized from this note, in regard to the official relations of the writer, it 
•was pleasing to observe a somewhat improved state of feeling towards 
him, on the part of the members of the Board. One of them detained 
him in the Chapel after prayers on the following morning, and very 
earnestly solicited his confidence, observing that there was evidently 
something wrong in the Institution, and expressing fears that the Epis- 
copal influence was unfavourable to its prosperity ; and finally, that it 
was the duty of the writer to communicate freely and fully with the 
members of the Board on this subject. The reply of the latter was, that 
he had been appointed to office on the nomination of Bishop Mcllvaine, 
— that for many years there had been the most familiar intimacy be- 
tween them, (the Bishop and the writer,) and although the latter deep- 
ly felt the painfulness of his present position, he was unwilling to make 
it, — as he thought he should make it, by such a communication still 
more false. He would rather, if it came to the worst, resign. The 
member referred to, expressed his sentiment very strongly against re- 
signing, and recommended to make further trial, and see whether it would 
not grow better. &c. Other members expressed themselves in similar 
terms, personally, and by letter. 

The workings of the Bishop's mind, at length, in the latter part of 
October, 1842, reached something like a crisis. — The writer calling 
upon him at his study about that time, on a matter of business purely 



y^ 



STATEMENT, &C. 29 

incedental, and without apprehension of any unpleasant occurrence ; 
the Bishop, who seemed somewhat excited from the first, adopted a 
course of remark calculated to disparage the services and labours of all 
other officers of the Institution, and to magnify his own ; — referring, 
among other things, to the ways and means for discharging the College 
debt. The writer took no notice of the disparagement, but admitting 
the greatness of the Bishops labours, in the matter referred to, suggested 
that he should call upon some of his friends to assist him, ancl very 
frankly tendered his own services in any way in which they could be 
useful. The proffer seemed strangely to give offence, and rising from 
his chair, he replied in a very haughty and imperious tone : " You ! 
what can you do toward raising thirty thousand dollars ? — you can't 
earn your own salary." The writer replied firmly, but without irrita- 
tion, — " Pardon me, Bishop ! I do earn my salary, and that most faith- 
fully.'' He replied with greater vehemence, " you do not, sir ! — you 
do not any of you." The writer again repeated his assertion, both for 
the Faculty and himself, and was again flatly contradicted. Seeing that 
the Bishop was greatly exasperated, he then took his hat, observing^ 
that he did not wish to be spoken to in this manner, and would call at 
some other time. This movement seemed still farther to aggravate the 
Bishop's excitement, and placing himself nearly in a line between the 
writer and the door, he commenced a strain of personal invective ; more 
violent and inflammatory, than Vv'^as ever addressed to the Avriter by any 
other man, or on any other occasion of his life. It would have been 
more than human not to have been excited by this unprovoked and 
most intemperate attack. The writer does not hesitate to say that he 
was excited ; and that though he answered the Bishop in deprecative 
terms, he answered him strongly. Certainly not more so however, than 
the case warranted, and in no other way — disrespectfully or unbecom- 
ingly to either party — and the moment he could disengage himself from 
the encounter he did so. 

This was a sad crisis, but the most cruel part of it was yet to come. 
Three days after, on a Faculty night, and after the members had ac- 
tually assembled, a letter was put into the writer's hands from the 
Bishop, to be laid before that body, which, on reading, he saw 
clearly could be only intended to create or excite a breach between 
them and himself. It was a severe rebuke for their not having 
acted on a subject which he professed to have referred to them, in a 
former communication through the President, with some advice as 
to the mode in which it ought to have been treated. The policy 
of this paper will be apparent from the following facts. The com- 
munication to which it referred was not addressed to the Faculty, but 
to the President ; — it was subscribed familiarly, and, under the circum- 
stances, could not have been intended or thought of as a communica- 
tion to the Faculty; the subject to which it related, though it had 
been yielded in courtesy, to the Faculty's action, was, in strictness, 
and exclusively, Executive.* 

* It related to the preparation of the annual Catalogue, of which no mention being 
made in the laws of the Institution, it was, of course, vested in the President. See 



30 STATEMENT, &C. 

Had there been any latent feeling of jealousy in the mind of any 
member of the Faculty, it could not have failed to be roused by such 
a communication ; and the heat of any recrimination to -which it gave 
rise, would have been greatly increased by the Bishop's tone of rebuke. 
They appeared to see through it, however, and merely appointing a 
■committee with the President to act on the subject matter, they com- 
mitted the answer of the Bishop's letter, with full powers, to the 
President alone. 

All these occurrences of necessity, produced a wide separation be- 
tween Bishop Mcllvaine and the writer, during which the latter had 
ample opportunity to survey the difficulties and perils with which 
he was surrounded. Feeling the necessit}' of some disinterested coun- 
sel, he employed himself in part, in drawing up a detailed statement 
of matters and things, in the form of a letter, to a friend which, though 
never sent, is now valuable as containing an exhibition of his views 
and sentiments at the time. The following extract from this letter 
has relation to the period and circumstances of which the writer is 
Kow speaking. 

" You have little idea. Sir — living as you do in the ordinary relations 
of society, how cruel such suggestions are in a community like this, 
where every thing seems to go by party influences and discipline ; and 
my exposure to them without the jjossibility of self-defence, is not one 
of the least painful circumstances of the situation into which 1 have 
been drawn. Nor is this the only way in which I am defenceless. 
The Board of Trustees may from misapprehension or otherwise, (I say 
not with intent^) be led to pass ordinances most oppressive or unjust, 
in their operation : — I have no means of preventing it, nor any efifiictive 
remed}' but to resign. Bishop Mcllvaine may at any moment neutral- 
ize my proudest and best efforts in behalf of the Institution — excite a 
pei'sonal feeling between me and the Faculty, or disaffect the commu- 
nity in which I live: — I have no m.eans of redress or escape, but with 
broken down spirits to retire from office. Even my seat in the Con- 
vention depends upon the vole of a vestry — a majority of v/hom may 
at any moment be converted into a cabal against me. These are no 
imaginary cases — man}^ of them have actually occurred — the last within 
the past week in electing delegates to the forthcoming Convention." 

The circumstance last mentioned in this quotation, was connected, 
as the writer soon after learned, with the project then extremely popu- 
lar on " the Hill," of sellins: the College lands. A movement on that 
subject had been observable for some time past, and from the increased 
interest manifested after the call of the Newark Convention, the writer 
has no doubt that a systematic attempt to that effect was intended to 
be brought out on that occasion. The subject had several times been 
mooted in his presence, with the evident desire to make him a convert 
to this policy ; but as he always expressed himself uncompromisingly 

Laws, Ken. Col. ch. 1, art. 4. "The President shall exercise a superinteiKling care 
overall the departments, Szc. All matters not referred hy law to the Faculty, nor 
otherwise provided for, shall be subject to his direction." 



STATEMENT, &C. 81 

against it, it became an object with the parties interested to exclude 
him from the delegation, in which they were very nearly successful.* 

In the belief that the Bishop was the dupe of the design here spo- 
ken of, and wishing at the same time to relieve himself from the burden 
of the jealousy and unkindness, of which he had unfortunately be- 
come the subject, the writer, in the early part of December, deter- 
mined to seek an interview with Bishop Mcllvaine, and if possible, 
clear up at any sacrifice, whatever of difficulty there might be between 
that gentleman and himself. It was hardly to be expected after what 
had transpired, that the confidence of former times would be entirely 
restored, but it vv'as an object to live upon such terms as would not in- 
terfere with the harmony of social intercourse, and a still higher one, 
to defeat the designs of self interest, in regard to the broad acres of the 
College domain. He accordingly addressed a note to the Bishop, re- 
questing an intervievi^, and the latter concurring, he called on the same 
evening, and by concessions and explanations, embracing every point 
which he could remember, or conceive of as a ground of unkindness, 
succeeded in removing, apparently, from his (the Bishop's) mind, every 
unfavourable impression ; and in guarding him, as far as the writer could 
do so, against the designs of his old enemies. This interview was ef- 
fectual to the fullest extent in restoring the relations of external cour- 
tesy and respect. It afforded no very distinct evidence, however, of 
a conciliatory disposition on the part of the Bishop, nor had the writer 
any assurance from his subsequent conduct that the bias of his mind 
was materially changed. He v/as still as susceptible as ever to oblique 
impressions, still suspicious and secretive ; the Vv'riter was frequently 
indebted to accident for the knowledge that unfriendly impressions had 
been received, and could not but infer that others were often so re- 
ceived without any opportunity on his part to explain ; and finally, he 
had unequivocal QYidience that his (the writer's) footsteps were watched, 
and his words scanned to obtain evidence against him. His only hope 
under these circumstances, was in the simple and faithful discharge of 
duty, often sounding the Bishop's mind, and anticipating by explana- 
tions and concessions to the utmost in his power, any supposed or sup- 
posable ground of hostility oi unkindness, and from this policy he 
never swerved. 

Such was the state of things at the assembling of the Convention 
in September, 1S43 ; an event to which the writer had looked forward 
with considerable interest, as affording him an opportunity of consult- 
ing with some of the friends of the Institution, in regard to the course 

* The writer derives no greater satisfaction from any thing connected with his of- 
ficial life at Gambler, than his persevering and steady opposition to this policy ; 
though if he had yielded himself a convert to it, he has no manner of doubt that he 
would still have been President of Kenyon College. As it was, (and he recurs to it 
with profound thankfulness,) he was enabled in attending the Convention at New- 
ark, to originate and sustain the policy under which 30,000 dollars have since been 
raised towards the payment of the debt. And in the succeeding General Conven- 
tion, to record a solemn declaration against sale, — now or ever. An efficient, busi- 
ness-like management of this noble domain would, in the opinion of the writer, very 
soon put the question of sale at rest, beyond the reach of discussion. 



32 STATEMENT, &C. 

of his duty under the difficult circumstances in which he was placed. 
He singled out for this purpose, Col. Bond and Gen. Cummings, two 
members of the Board of Trustees, and friends of Bishop Mcllvaine, 
both of whom had previously solicited the confidence of the writer on 
all subjects connected with the Institution. He cautioned them espe- 
cially, that his object was not to make any complaint against the 
Bishop, but simply to state a few facts for the purpose of asking their 
friendly counsel and advice ; and he is conscious before God, that he 
did this as a lover of peace, in a perfectly frank and submissive spirit, 
insomuch, that if they had required him to make a confession and 
apology to Bishop Mcllvaine, he would have done so without a mo- 
ment's hesitation. But they did no such thing. They approved of his 
conduct in every respect ; commended his Christian forbearance ; ex- 
j)ressed great thankfulness that the Institution was under the Presidency 
of one who could thus deny himself, and encouraged him, in strong 
terms, to continue in the same spirit — corroborating at the same time, 
the Bishop's action — by the analogy of their own experience in the 
Board of Trustees — as arbitrary and overbearing.* 

Nothing further occurred after the Convention to alter materially 
the aspect of ihings on " the Hill." The Bishop parted from the wri- 
ter, on his second visit to New- York, with ordinary courtesy and met 
him again on his return in the latter part of December, with something 
more than ordinary ; and from that time till the writer's dismission on 
the 29th Feb., 1844, his (the Bishop's) deportment was character- 
ized by all the external marks of courtesy and kindness. It now appears, 
however, that while such was the visible demonstration, the Bishop 
was actually, at this very period, arranging with his confidential ad- 
visers the modus operandi of the impending and final proceeding. 

By a letter of his to a friend in Brooklyn, which at his request was 
communicated to several others, it is revealed that he (the Bishop) re- 
turned to Gambler, notwithstanding his great success in raising funds, 
with a heavy heart ; having been apprised of a serious diminution in 
the number of the College students, and finding on his return, instead 
of the flourishing Institution he had anticipated, that the College was 
fast declining. f The letter goes on to state that he (the Bishop) upon 
this view of the case, immediately instituted a secret inquiry, and find- 
ing the Professors and teachers (of whom he inquired,) unanimous 
with him in the opinion that the President's unpopularity Avas the 
cause of the diminution, he called a meeting of the Board of Trustees 
to take action in the premises, &,c. &.C.J 

* The writer's motives and conduct in this interview having been mif-represented, 
he is compelled to go into particulars. The llev. Mr. Allen, also a Tru.stee, was pre- 
sent during part of this conversation, and concurred with the other gentlemen. 

t With regard to the fact of the diminished numbers, it will have been seen in a 
preceding part of this statement, that but one person had left the College since the 
last Convention, besides the clique for whose dismission the Eic-hop expressed so 
much anxiety before he left home ; while in the Theological Seminary and two 
grammar schools, there was indeed great cause of discouragement on this account. 

t The writer is obliged to quote this letter from the recollection of some of those 
t) whom it was read. He wrote to Bishop ISITlvainc for a correct copy of it, but 
the latter, probably anticipating his intention, returned his letter of request unopened. 



STATEMENT, &C. 33 

Two or three questions naturally suggest themselves in reference to 
this statement of the Bishop's, viz. : Why was not the President himself 
consulted in some part of these proceedings ? Who more likely to un- 
derstand the subject of the inquiry ? Why was the inquiry secret ? Who 
was the Bishop's informant as to the fact ? Who were the Professors 
and Teachers who corroborated his (the Bishop's) opinion with such 
entire unanimity ? The answer to these questions is instructive. The 
privy council it now appears was composed, in part at least, of Pro- 
fessor Sandels, head of the Senior Grammar School ; and one or both 
the heads of the Junior Grammar School,* with the Bishop. In other 
words, the heads of the three diminished seminaries (the Theological 
Seminary, Senior Grammar School, and Junior Grammar School) were 
unanimously of opinion, that the President of Kenyan College icas the 
cause of the decline in said Seminaries. What disinterestedness ! What 
purity ! What magnanimity ! Let no one now ask why this process was 
secret : it speaks for itself. 

But other things have been brought to light, in the connexion of this 
most extraordinary proceeding. It is now known that the design and 
purpose of the writer's dismission was distinctly shadowed forth, and 
spoken of, in terms, long before the date of the Bishop's return from 
New- York. That even on the last days of the Convention, or immedi- 
ately thereafter, members of the Board of Trustees were polarised in 
reference to that end. And this leads us to notice a circumstance in 
the proceedings of the Convention, upon which, in the opinion of the 
writer, the whole movement has had a special and immediate depen- 
dency. 

The writer, it will be recollected, was one of the committee of eight, 
elected by the Convention to report upon that part of the Bishop's ad- 
dress relating to the ordination of the Rev. Arthur Cary ; of which 
Committee Messrs. Bond, Cummings, and Smallwood, (trustees,) were 
also members. But it is not generally known, that the action originally 
reported for the adoption of that Committee, contained a judicial declara- 
tion in regard to the doctrinal fitness of the candidate, and to the action 
of the Bishop of New- York in the premises ; and that said report was 
only brought to the form in which it was finally adopted and published, 
after a protracted debate, in which two members of the Committee, the 
writer being one, were opposed to the other six. It is not necessary to 
go into the particulars of this debate at present, nor even to specify the 
grounds on which the minority insisted ; they may easily be appre- 
hended by any one at all acquainted with the first elements of ecclesi- 
astical jurisprudence, and the canons of the church. The debate was 
perfectly amicable, and generally in order, with the exception, how- 
ever, that reference was several times made to the opinions and expec- 
tations of the Bishop ; and the minority, during a part of the dis- 
cussion, were rather invidiously held up as hindering the action of the 
Committee. The writer protested particularly against the last of 
these points as an invasion of right, and admonished the majority to 

* Professor Sandels acknowledged this fact to the writer as to himself, and the 
other, when questioned, did not deny it. 

5 



84 STATEMENT, &C. 

proceed by Parliamentary rule ; but the disagreement of the Committee 
was at length obviated by the substitution of an abstract declaration — 
moved by the writer, instead of the one originally proposed, — for the 
second resolution. And in this form, with a few verbal alterations in 
other parts, the report was carried into the Convention. The writer 
believed at the time, and was confirmed in that belief by a considerable 
number of the clergy and laity of the Convention, that in taking the po- 
sition which he felt himself conscientiously bound to take, on that occa- 
sion, he was instrumental in saving the Convention from a very unplea- 
sant division, and the church at large from an occasion of much fruitless 
agitation and controversy ; but whether this be the case or not, he is 
firmly convinced, from the evidences before him, that his conduct was 
noted b}' one at least of his constituency, and that his removal from of- 
fice, in February following, was a regular sequence to the issue then 
and there made. 

The end contemplated by the writer in this part of his narrative has 
been, as the reader will perceive, to throw some light upon the question 
as to the real agency and motive of his removal from olSce. He trusts 
he has done this; and yet the subject is by no means exhausted. 
Some of the most impressive facts of the case, have been held back, in 
his desire to avoid as far as possible all particularities of a personal 
nature. The following letter, and a few remarks suggested by it, will 
conclude what is now to be said ; dated, and received on the day fol- 
lowing the act of removal. 

" Gambier, March 1st, 1844. 
My Dear Friend — 1 beg to express ray deep and affectionate sympa- 
thy in the affliction vv'hich the result of the meeting of the Trustees 
must have caused to you and yonr whole family. You will not expect 
me, considering my relations to the Board, to speak of that result in any 
way but with reference to its painfulness. But as to the effect of any 
of the action of that body upon the feeling and happiness of yourself 
and family, 1 am not only free to speak, but feel irresistably compelled 
to speak to you at this time. All that you could expect of me, in that 
aspect of the matter, from the long and intimate associations between 
us, under such various and interesting circumstances, be assured I do 
most truly feel. I can readily conceive, however, that you may so in- 
terpret the action of the Board, that this assurance may seem incon- 
sistent. I rely upon the letter signed by the several Trustees, (which 
you have received,) to convince you how perfectly that action was un- 
influenced by me ; how perfectly it was the spontaneous conclusion of 
the Trustees, acting without suggestion, direction, or influence, from any 
quarter but that of their own investigations. But still I shall not wonder 
if you should think hardly of me as bt^ing negatively involved in it, be- 
cause 1 did not resist what is to you and all so painful. Probably it is 
not to be expected that, in your circumstances, you should think other- 
wise. I Avill not complain if such should be the case. I would, indeed, 
that I could extract some of your sufTerings, by being willing to endure 
patiently the supposition, on your part, that the proceedings alluded to 



STATEMENT, &C. 35 

are inconsistent with my profession of the most undiminished interest 
in your happiness, and sympathy in whatever afflicts you. But I must 
ease, a httie, the pain of mind and heart v/hich 1 do most acutely and 
oppressively suffer on account of the action of the Board, (leaving its 
merits out of the question) by begging you to be assured, that in me is 
still j'-our old friend ; the same heart toward you and yours, as ever ; 
and that nothing of a personal kind which could be expected of any 
body, to serve you can be asked of me in vain, if I am able to do it. 
I remain as ever, your affectionate friend 

C. P. McIlvaine. 

D. B. Douglass, LL.D. 

If the reader should find some difficulty in reconciling the profession 
of this letter with the previous action of its author, he will not be 
surprised to learn that the same was also experienced by him to whom 
it was addressed. There was no sentimental bias against its reception ; 
the voice of sympathy and kindness would have been an " angel's whis- 
per" to him in his deep distress; but the assent of his understanding 
was wanting. The events of the two preceding years had left " foot 
prints" in his memory — not very easily to be obliterated. 

But if he could even have closed his mind against the remembrance 
of the past, the Bishop's conduct, after the writing of this letter, showed 
but too plainly that he could not have been entirely sincere in the 
professions of kindness by which it is so remarkably characterized. 
The ink was scarcely dry when, in a formal audience with a portion 
of the students, he took up, in review, the life and character of the late 
President — embracing a great many particulars of private and personal 
interest, wholly unconnected with the recent transaction, — for the evi- 
dent purpose of rendering him odious and contemptible in the eyes of 
his former pupils. Nay, even those passages in his letter of condo- 
lence, which were noticed, on its first perusal, as pointing rather omin- 
ously, to the rectitude and intelligence of the Board's proceedings, were 
now discovered, by the use made of them, to have been ingeniously 
designed as petiliones principii — sophistical make-weights to sink the 
victim a little lower. 

In a similar spirit, letters were written, (lo ladies !) to be circulated 
among the friends of the President, in Brooklyn and New-York, con- 
taining a series of allegations, for the most part wholly irrelevant to 
the matter in hand but, of no doubtful import, as calculated to defame 
and vilify his reputation and character in that quarter.* Whether 

* That tlie reader may see upon what grounds these statements are made, a few of 
the allegations referred to, with the answers, are here quoted. 

1. The writer is said to have boiTowed money from tne Bishop for payment of 
transportation on his goods when he first went to Ohio, which money has only re- 
cently been refunded. Answer. The writer has the agent's certificate to show that 
this loan was refunded on the 10th January, IS 42 — seven months after it was borrow- 
ed, and more than two years before the date of the allegation ! 

2. The writer is accused of meanness (by implication,) for having made out a 
charge of some sixty-five dollars for services in vacation. Answer. This is too bad! 



36 STATEMENT, &C. 

these allegations were true or false, is not now the question. Were 
they such as could have been made and circulated by a sincere and sym- 
pathizing friend ? Were they consistent with that " unabated interest " — 
that "pain of mind and heart so acutely and oppressively suffered ?" — 
or that yearning to " extract some of the anguish " from the bosom of 
a stricken brother, of which the foregoing letter is, in profession, so 
liberal ? 

The writer might press this matter much further, but in obedience 
to the rule heretofore laid down — he forbears. Hs has had no desire 
to make out a case against Bishop Mcllvaine further than was abso- 
lutely necessary in exposing the wrongs which have been so gratuitous- 
ly heaped upon himself. Many of his friends have urged, and perhaps 

All his vacations as well as his spare Term-time were devoted, most laboriously and 
unceasingly, to the repair and improvement of the College buildings and premises. 
His services in this way, on any public work, would have amounted to at least 1500 
dollars ; not a cent of which was ever charged or intended to be charged. The little 
bill to which the Bishop alludes, was made — not as the allegation implies, to put chis 
paltry sum in the writer's pocket; — but to balance a bill of timber and fencing stuff, 
used on College premises, which had been wrongfully charged to him ; all which was 
fully known to the Bishop at the time, and appeared to meet his entire approbation. 

3. The writer is said to have incurred heavy expenses for improvements, &c. for 
which he aftei-wards brought in bills, without any right or authority for so doing. 
Answer. This relates to the CoHege walk and Gateway, and Fence adjoining, 
built in 184.3. The last-mentioned was erected at the .specific request of Bishop 
Mcllvaine ! The other two (costing together about 320 dollars,) were undertaken 
by the writer with a deficiency of present means for the whole work, estimated at 
about 140 dollars ; which Bishop Mcllvaine on his return from New-York in August, 
— approving in very strong terms of what had been done, — prom.ised to make good. 
The writer accordingly applied to him after his second trip to New York, and 
was advised in the most friendly and apjrroning manner to make out all the bills 
: nd bring them before the Board at their contemplated meeting then near at hand ; 
which he did. With regard to other improvements mentioned in a former part of 
this narrative, [e.xcept those for repairs and furnishing the college in 1S41, which have 
been publicly approved by the Bishop,] they were ahnost entirely defrayed from the 
pocket of the writer ; upwards of 800 dollars having been laid out by him in this way, 
during the three years of his incumbency. 

(It is proper to add by way of parenthesis, that since the Board of Trustees have 
repudiated the tenure of office under which these expenditures were made, and the 
writer is thus deprived of the use and benefit of them, without any failure on his 
part ; he has been advised to bring this and other pecuniary claims to the test of a 
legal adjudication.) 

4. Another of the allegations was, that the writer endeavoured to make a party in 
the Faculty, against the Bishop. Answer. This is wholly unfounded. The Bishop's 
unkindnes.¥es wore sometimes spoken of in the confidence of personal intimacj', 
particularly to Professors Ross and Sar.dels ; the foiTner as an old and intimate 
friend, who had been nominated to his present office by the v,'riter; and the latter, 
as apparently a sympathizing one. The only instance ever quoted to the writer, as 
ground for this charge was on his part really, a deprecation of blame bronght against 
the Bishop hy another ; and v.'hich was so explained to the satisfaction of the Bishop, 
at the interview in Dec. 1842. There was a considerable movement of the Faculty 
in the winter of 1S42-3, in reference to the agent, Mr. White ; but it did not originate 
with the writer, nor was the step proposed, (viz., a general resignation,) countenanced 
by him. 

5. It was said further, that the writer had called meetings of the students and ex- 
cited them to pass resolutions of censure upon the Bishop and Board of Trustees. 
Answer. Utterly false ; diametrically contrary to the fact. 

6. Also that the writer had extended the bounds of the College Park beyond the 
Chapel on the northj without authority and even in the face of authority. Atuudr. Dia- 



STATEMENT, &C. 37 

expected him to give a full and general exposition of the administration 
on " the Hill," This, as a donor, it is unquestionably his right, and 
may at some future time be his duty to do ; but not now. 

Finally, though he has been drawn into a controversy on a question 
, of right and wrong, with a Bishop of the church, (how much against 
his will is known to the Searcher of hearts,) let it not, therefore, be 
supposed, for a moment, that he holds in lightness or irreverence, the 
proper spiritual office and authority of his Diocesan, or other " chief 
Minister," or places any low estimate upon his own obligations, as a 
dutiful son and servant of the Church. 

metrically opposite to the fact. The Park bounds were defined by the writer, at the 
request of the Board of Trustees, exactly as he wished them to be ; and the exten- 
sion was made at the particular request of Bishop Mcllvaine. 

Many other allegations were made in the Bishop's interview with the students — 
touching the writer's pecuniary affairs in New-York, during the commercial troubles 
of 1837, &c. — his taste and judgment in regard to books — the Bishop's doubts of his 
competency at the time of his nomination ! — and finally, that he, the writer, was 
not entitled to any credit for the improvements and repairs about the College ! ! &c. &c. 

How he Avas held accountable for the expense of these im^provements, and yet not 
entitled to the credit of them, passes the writer's understanding. But what had 
these allegations — any or all of them, — to do with the writer's dismissal 1 The 
Board of Trustees, having power to choose their issue, placed that act on the ground 
of unpopularity. They made no charge of official misconduct or failure of any 
kind ; — on the contrary, they expressly disclaimed every pretence of any such charge, 
and passed unanimously, a vote of unqualified approbation. 

The writer has been obliged to quote the foregoing allegations from hearsay, the 
Bishop having returned unopened his request for a copy of the letter in which they 
are mostly contained. The Bishop affects to consider a former letter, written in an- 
swer to one of his, on the subject of the writer's disbursements, as offensive. It is 
admitted to have been strongly, perhaps indignantly written, but if an occasion 
should offer for its publication, with the letter to which it was an answer, it will be 
seen to be, under the circumstances, a most natural and not improper response. 



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